Die Mosetora als Schrift

This study deals with the Mosaic Torah as a text in its received form. Whoever announces the sacred Torah speaks firstly with heavenly authority. In Israel many people claimed this. The recording of their words lends the message permanent authority. In the corpus Ex-Dtn we read many times that Moses put into writing or read out the instructions of Yhwh, but the extent and content of the Torah are not exactly determined. Even the Torah quotations in Jos. 8,32.35 (24,26), 2Kgs 22f., and Neh 8 cannot be directly related to the model text of Ex-Dtn. Current analyses of the Mosaic Torah are mostly based on the Leningrad Codex of the 11th century. Its text, however, deviates in many ways from the relevant Qumran fragments. Moreover, the critical edition and the translations of the Mosaic Torah confirm its textual polymorphism. Hence, any document that claims to be the Mosaic Torah must firstly be individually analysed. This applies to the model text of Gen-Dtn as also to the Book of Jubilees and the Temple Scroll. The Qumran texts confirm that the Mosaic Torah in the form of Gen-Dtn enjoyed a special status, as nearly all the Torah citations correspond with it. Thus the authorship and the recipients determine the kind of written Mosaic Torah that is chosen and transmitted in the process of Yhwh's continuing revelation to Israel.